Third generation residential school survivor discusses her experiences in book

When her tribal council at Soda Creek started looking at the social dysfunction and chaos in its Northern British Columbia community in the 1990s, there was no escaping its source. “All roads led back to the residential schools,” said Bev Sellars.

Being deloused with DDT, eating food unfit for human consumption and enduring the strapping that was the method of discipline at St. Joseph’s Mission at Williams Lake are just a few of the inhumane experiences Sellars writes about in her book, They Called Me Number One. Her experiences in the residential school were also those of her mother and grandmother, although like so many others they never talked about it.

Not only was she forced to live away from her family for 10 months of the year, but her name was also taken from her. Residents of the school were identified as numbers. Parents who did not allow their children to attend the school faced going to jail.

When the school was finally closed during Sellars term as chief at Soda Creek, it was demolished by members of the community as though by obliterating it, they could erase the horrific abuse they endured. “I was shocked at how much damage they were able to do in less than 24 hours with no tools or machinery,” writes Sellars.

Sellars said when she started connecting the dots from childhood to adulthood, she started writing notes about her experience for her kids, her nieces and nephews. She said, “I was afraid that we will all die and nobody will know what happened.”

For the Aboriginal people who went to the residential schools, so many people say, “That’s my story,” said Sellars.

After a reading once, an audience member came up to Sellars and said, “I refused to deal with my time at the school. After reading the book, I’m going to counselling.” She said it is the best compliment she ever received. Sellars encourages people to tell their stories although many cannot.

Her work has not always been welcomed. Sellars received hate mail in the early ‘90s when she began to speak out about the residential schools. “The non-Native audiences responded negatively,” she said.

That has changed. Other non-Aboriginals began pointing their fingers at the church, saying, “This is what happened to me.”
Lately phone calls and letters from people everywhere have been positive.

“I have lots of non-Native friends, all colours, who understand where we’ve been,” she said. “People everywhere have to be treated with dignity and respect.”

In her book, Sellars describes the way her people have been treated as “welfare,” repeating what many Elders have said, “We are beggars in our own land.”

“Even the money we get now, there are strings attached,” she said.

“For true reconciliation we want total control of our lives and our people and our resources,” Sellars said.

Photo caption: Bev Sellars, author of  They Called Me Number One, will be reading from and discussing her book on May 3 at the 10th Anniversary conference of the Creative Nonfiction Collective at Calgary’s Palliser Hotel.